Maryland Politics: March 8, 2009 - March 14, 2009

Tom Perez, Maryland's labor secretary and a former Montgomery County council member, has been nominated to be President Obama's assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department. Our colleague Scott Wilson reports on the nomination in the 44...

There is growing chatter around the State House that Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari may soon be resigning to take a post in the Obama Administration. Porcari, who is widely regarded as one of Gov. Martin O'Malley's most talented Cabinet...

The lead House sponsor of a bill to repeal Maryland's death penalty has reversed course and is now urging his colleagues to support a Senate bill that instead tightens evidence rules in capital cases. "I have concluded that the likelihood...

A member of the House of Delegates' Republican caucus has confirmed that Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel), one of the body's most conservative members, has told fellow party members that he no longer plans to caucus with the group. Dwyer...

Former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee chairman, is again trying to clarify a statement that angered some in his own party -- this time on abortion. Our colleague Chris Cillizza has the story in The Fix....

An Anne Arundel County judge today rejected a challenge to Maryland's slot machine-gambling law by Laural Racing Association, whose bid to operate a slots parlor was disqualified last month by a state panel. Circuit Court Judge William C. Mulford II...

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said today that state employee layoffs and tax increases are off the table as Maryland leaders scramble to fill another $500 million hole in the state budget. But he and others cautioned that...

A House of Delegates committee heard a bill yesterday to change the words of the Maryland state song from a poem written in 1861 that urges that the state secede from the union to a less fiery 1894 poem. Fourth...

The House of Delegates today revived a controversial measure that had been killed yesterday, a bill that would allow for the expunging of requests for domestic protective orders that were dismissed. The body voted to reconsider the bill on a...

The Maryland Republican Party took a somewhat predictable swing today at Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) for striking up his band as the state's revenue collections deteriorate. The Post reported today that the governor is releasing the fifth O'Malley's March album...

Environment Maryland, one of the state's biggest environmental groups, concludes in a study released today that despite passage of the 1997 Smart Growth Act, which tried to reduce suburban sprawl and halt the decline of the Chesapeake Bay, development patterns...

A daughter of former Montgomery County Council members Don and Marilyn Praisner said today she would back Del. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Montgomery) in the District 4 special election. Kramer is one of 10 candidates seeking to fill the vacancy left...